The embodiments presented herein relate generally to supervisory control and data acquisition systems and, more particularly, to communication with a supervisory control and data acquisition system.
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems monitor and control dispersed assets involved in industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes. SCADA systems are used to monitor and control industrial processes, such as manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, refining, and the like. Many public and private infrastructures rely on SCADA systems for monitoring and controlling processes, such as water treatment and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, oil distribution, natural gas distribution, electric power transmission and distribution, and the like. Facilities, such as buildings, airports, ships, space stations, private homes, communities, and the like also sometime rely on SCADA systems to monitor and control security access, energy consumption, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, for example.
SCADA systems typically include a control center. SCADA control centers include a human machine interface (HMI) by which a human operator can observe process data and provide input for remote control of a process if necessary, databases for storing historical process data, and servers for communicating via communication routers with field deployments of SCADA devices, such as remote telemetry units (RTUs).
The RTUs connect to physical equipment, such as meters, sensors, switches, valves, probes, and the like. RTUs convert electrical signals from the physical equipment to digital values, such as to identify the open/closed status from a switch or a valve, and conduct measurements, such as of pressure, flow, voltage, or current.
The introduction of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) presents opportunities and challenges in terms of supervision and control by SCADA systems. The AMI infrastructure includes communications networks and database systems that will modernize the electric grid and provide important benefits to electric companies and consumers. AMI involves two-way communications with “smart” meters and other energy management devices (collectively referred to herein as “AMI devices”).